Commentary (and rants) on national and local politics.

There’s Something (Wrong) About Hillary, Pt. II

And the hits just keep coming!

First it’s the disingenuous twisting and distorting of Barack Obama’s statements about Ronald Reagan which (rightly, IMO) suggested that Reagan had tapped into and delivered upon a desire for fundamental change in a way that Bill Clinton’s presidency didn’t. At no point did Obama suggest that he thought Reagan was a “great” president, though:

“I do think that, for example, the 1980 election was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not. Um, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know with all the excesses of the 60s and the 70s, and, you know, the government had grown and grown and there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. And, I think, people just tapped in– he tapped into what people were already feeling which was we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepeneurship that had been missing.”

Compare that to the nonsense both Hillary and Bill are claiming he said and you have to wonder which is worse: how stupid and easily manipulated they clearly think Americans are, or how stupid and easily manipulated the press clearly is that they report this garbage unchallenged on the eve of a critical and competitive election. Ironically, the following statement can be found right on Clinton’s own website in the Press Releases section, in an article dated 12/12/07 announcing several New Hampshire newspapers endorsing her:

She is sincere and passionate about restoring fiscal responsibility, providing health care to all Americans, protecting the environment, keeping the tax burden off the middle class and earning the faith and trust of the American people.

But no president can do it alone. She must break recent tradition, cast cronyism aside and fill her cabinet with the best people, not only the best Democrats, but the best Republicans as well.. We’re confident she will do that. Her list of favorite presidents – Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Truman, George H.W. Bush and Reagan – demonstrates how she thinks. As expected, Bill Clinton was also included on the aforementioned list.

[ETA: Ben Smith has more on Clinton and Reagan, including her campaign’s clumsy two-step explanation which, ironically, makes reference to “damaged” audio from the original interview where it came up!]

Besides the hypocritical presence of Bush and Reagan, most notable by his absence is Lyndon B. Johnson, the president without whom, she recently suggested, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been little more than an idealistic dreamer. A cynical observer might suspect that’s because in those long-ago years, when she was less concerned with the black vote, she supported Johnson’s opponent, the Republican Barry Goldwater, who was against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and lost to Johnson by one of the largest margins in the history of U.S. Presidential elections.

But people change, right? They mature, become enlightened, evolve their thinking. Right?

(more…)

Continue ReadingThere’s Something (Wrong) About Hillary, Pt. II

Gambling with God in Nevada

With the cynical lawsuit to stop casino workers from caucusing on the Strip tomorrow having been rightly dismissed, the LA Times has an interesting article entitled “Clinton plays gaming card against Obama“, pointing out her latest attempt to muddy the waters in what is looking more and more like a campaign against Barack Obama instead of the campaign for Hillary Clinton she was running most of last year when she was still the “presumptive nominee”:

The issue has come into focus primarily due to the Clinton campaign, which has distributed a document to local reporters, headlined, “Obama Blasted Gambling as Socially Destructive and Economically Irresponsible,” listing several of his past quotes.

Among them are a 2003 comment in the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, in which Obama argued that the “moral and social cost of gambling, particularly in low-income communities, could be devastating.”

In 2001, the Clinton memo states, Obama described himself as “generally skeptical” of gambling as an economic development tool and likened the expansion of slot machines to the state lottery, in which, he said, “you’ll have a whole bunch of people who can’t afford gambling their money away, yet they’re going to do it.”

As part of its efforts to publicize those statements, the Clinton campaign has secured the help of top industry players — several of whom participated in a campaign-sponsored conference call with the media last week designed to chastise Obama.

Southern California-based Latinopoliticsblog.com zeroes in on an interesting point that’s buried towards the end of the article:

The other ironic thing about this issue is that Hillary Clinton is a follower of the Social Principles of the Methodist Church, which calls on Christians to obstain [sic] from gambling. How does she reconcile her church’s beliefs with her heavy ties to the gambling industry? I would expect this sort of dilemma from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, but not Hillary Clinton. Why did she even need to go there with the religion?

(more…)

Continue ReadingGambling with God in Nevada

My Awesome God’s Full of Hope!

(an off-the-cuff villanelle, kind of by request) Because we live in a time of pure dread our future at the mercy of madmen I worship the awesome god in my head. Bush kisses his nukes each night before bed while Cheney cackles away in his den because we live in a time of pure dread. With Rudi's campaign not yet in the red and Huckabee-ing America's friend I worship the awesome god in my head. McCain wants Asians and Muslims all dead and crazy Paul raises crazy millions because we live in a time of pure dread. While Clinton plays word games, "he…

Continue ReadingMy Awesome God’s Full of Hope!

There’s Something (Wrong) About Hillary

As recently as this past Saturday, while working the Obama visibility event in Union Square, I said to several people that I thought one of the best things about this election is that we have three viable Democratic candidates who have a legitimate shot at winning the Presidency in November. Barack Obama, obviously, is my first choice, with John Edwards a close second and Hillary Clinton a distant, but not totally unpalatable third. Not even 48 hours later, I see two viable candidates and one who is quickly becoming so toxic that not only can I see myself not voting for her in November, but dedicating my time and energy to working for the opposition, ideally Mayor Bloomberg’s inevitable campaign.

There was a brief moment early last week where I believed the combination of the historical import of a Clinton vs. Obama primary and the slam dunk seemingly awaiting the Democrats in November would override the petty politics-as-usual campaign tactics; that they would be able to engage on the issues and focus on their very different approaches to achieving their goals. I hoped there would be a very conscious decision by all three candidates to fight fair so as to ensure a healthy nominee we could all get behind in November.

Instead, I’m watching Hillary, Bill and company piss all over the process and claim that it’s just raining.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThere’s Something (Wrong) About Hillary

Obama Visibility in Union Square

I attended my first “visibility” event for Barack Obama yesterday, in Union Square, right in the midst of the Greenmarket, a perfect location to both be seen by and talk to a pretty diverse range of New Yorkers. There were approx. 20 of us spread throughout the Market, armed with “Obama ’08” signs and, with the deadline to register to vote in the Feb. 5th primary having passed, sign-up forms for people to pledge their support for him and offer to volunteer to help the campaign. I signed up 12 people during the 2.5 hours I was out there (including three potential volunteers), got a thumbs up from a few dozen more who said they were already supporting him, and had interesting discussions with a handful of people, including one who was tentatively supporting Hillary Clinton but keeping an open mind.

As a former Jehovah’s Witness, the whole steup was very familiar, and within about a half-hour, I was pretty comfortable being out there, not missing a beat when I bumped into a former co-worker, something that had always felt awkward back in those days of, um…campaigning for God. One of the things I learned back then was to read body language and faces and eyes, to discern between those who don’t see you and are actively avoiding seeing you, and those instincts were still pretty strong yesterday.

Interestingly, and purely anecdotal and subjective, most of those I saw who openly supported Obama — either by signing up or offering encouraging comments — were white, while a lot of the black people who passed me by either noticeably avoided making eye contact or had looks that I interpreted as an odd mix of melancholy and wistfulness. Of the various people I spoke to, several of them, all intending to vote for whomever the Democrats ultimately put forward, spoke of a deep distrust of the Clintons, one in particular whose comments were so outlandish I had to not-so-subtly shoo him away.

(more…)

Continue ReadingObama Visibility in Union Square

The Problem With John McCain

I said elsewhere recently that I thought John McCain would be the least likely Republican candidate to make a Freudian slip and drop a racial epithet if running against Barack Obama. I’d forgotten about his reference to “gooks” during the 2000 presidential primaries, though. And then, during last night’s Republican debate on Fox — one of the most depressing things I’ve watched in years, BTW — he dropped this beauty and I realized exactly how important this year’s election is: 

“I’m not interested in trading with al-Qaeda. All they want to trade is burqas. I don’t want to travel with them. They like one-way tickets.”

Generally speaking, I had considered McCain the most palatable of the Republican field despite his aggressive stance on the war, but this kind of casually racist — and clearly pre-scripted — comment, presumably okay because it’s in reference to an enemy — his justification for the “gook” comment, too — brings to mind Stephen King’s Dead Zone, visions of his crazy ass starting World War III being even clearer than those I’ve had of Dubya. (Fred Thompson has a noticeably itchy trigger finger, too, and is looking more like a potential VP choice for McCain, which is scary as hell.)

I watched about 30 minutes of the debate before I couldn’t take it anymore and came away with a better understanding of the appeal of Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, who at least come off as sincere representatives of their respective platforms, even though the latter seems easily distracted from the point he’s making at any given moment. Paul was the recipient of some unwarranted contempt and derision from both the moderator, the insufferable Britt Hume, as well as several of his fellow candidates, and while he has no real shot at winning the nomination, with the impressive financial support he’s received, I can see him launching a 3rd party candidacy that siphons some votes from the Republicans and possibly even some of the ill-informed progressives who blindly backed Howard Dean in 2004.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe Problem With John McCain

Calm down, people (Part II)

One of the must-read blogs for coverage of the primaries is Talking Point Memo's Election Central, and they've just posted the text of an Obama campaign memo noting the strong fundraising over the first 8 days of the new year -- more than $8 million plus 35,000 new donors, which includes me and my now $100 in donations -- and their strategy and prospects for the upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina and Super Duper Tuesday. Of particular note: In all of the February 5th states, we have active chapters at most colleges and universities and are pursuing support from independent voters aggressively…

Continue ReadingCalm down, people (Part II)

No more posts to load